The Way You Are
by VashiMiku
Summary: Sometimes, what makes us best friends is also what makes us bad room mates.


Lazy Sundays were a rare thing for Kaito Shion, like albino tigers and not being assaulted by Meiko when she'd been drinking. These days, he cherished and showed his appreciation for them by sleeping to his heart's content. Long after noon, one would find a blue lump of blankets on Kaito's futon, and they would know that something was alive under them by the way that they rhythmically rose and fell, with the occasional murmur coming from them.

No one bothered him on these days, even Mei-chan. So it was with a great amount of surprise that the blue-haired ice cream addict was awakened to the sound of his cell phone ringing. Just by the tone, he knew who it was, though it was unusual to get a call from this person at this hour. A hand with sky blue polish on the nails shot out from under the blanket, grabbing the flat phone of the same color. Then, Kaito sat up in bed, opening the clam-shell device and wincing as the ice cream cone phone charm hit him in the eye. This was going to be a long day.

"Moshi moshi, this is Kaito," he answered through a yawn.

"Of course it is," Gakupo's smooth voice replied. "Who else would be answering Kaito-dono's cell phone?"

That was a good point. The bluenette found he had no reply for that, other than to agree with his friend. Still, there was one question that yearned to be answered. Switching the phone to his other ear, Kaito used his now free hand to rub his face in an attempt to wake up his brain a little more. He needed it, as he was often called stupid by the other Vocaloids. This call with Gakupo was already adding fuel to that fire in its own way.

"Why are you calling so early, Gakupo-san? It must be important." Kaito hoped it was. As much as he loved his friend, if it was for something like helping the singing samurai bathe his eggplant horses, Kaito was going to hang up.

"Forgive me Kaito-dono, for I did not take account of the time," Gakupo sounded distressed enough to be immediately forgiven.

"Well, there's no harm in it, I guess," the Shion yawned again, putting on a smile afterwards. "I'm awake now, so I can start my day early. What about you, Gakupo-san? Is something bothering you?"

"I've debated about it all night and there was no one else to call with this request," was the rather dramatic reply. There was no need for Kaito to get too riled up, as he knew that Gakupo had a tendency to be a little theatric about things. "I am having renovations done to my house soon. Because the construction will be extensive and unappealing to look at, it is recommended that I stay elsewhere. To stay in a hotel for this length of time would be needlessly expensive, so I thought to stay with a friend instead. You were the only person that I could think of. Please forgive me, Kaito-dono."

"Gakupo-san, you make it sound as though you were calling to ask me for a kidney," Kaito giggled.

However, his friend answered in a rather serious tone, "Kaito-dono, I would never call you to ask for such a thing. We are Vocaloids with no need for such organs."

"Well… that's true…" Kaito rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. "Even at this hour, you're quite sharp, Gakupo-san. Anyway, to answer your question, I think it would be great having such a good friend stay with me! It will be like a sleepover every night. We'll stay up late, do each other's nails and talk and we'll watch scary movies!"

Kaito had quite a collection of Korean horrors, but he hadn't watched many of them because he was afraid to alone. Since Gakupo was coming, he could finally enjoy them!

"I have only started to pack while we were talking on the phone, so it will be a little while, but I will arrive in time for dinner."

"In that case, I will make something extra nice to celebrate! See you soon, Gakupo-san!"

"Goodbye, Kaito-dono. I will see you very soon."

Kaito was in a very good mood when he hung up the phone, forgetting that his rest had been disturbed. Normally, he would have gone back to sleep, but now he was too excited for that. His closest friend would be staying with him! He had been so excited just thinking about it that he had even forgotten to ask for how long. However, he thought to himself that it didn't matter. Gakupo could stay as long as he wanted to.

"Since he's coming, I should get everything ready for him!"

He kept a relatively clean house, but Kaito made an extra effort to straighten up, most especially the guest room, where Gakupo would be sleeping. He knew that his friend was an avid admirer of eggplants, so he found blankets in about that shade for the futon so that he could make up the bed. Once he was done, he contemplated a mint on the pillow, decided that was too much like a hotel, and then put the mint anyway. At the very least, Gakupo would be amused by the gesture, and besides, Kaito wanted him to know that he was just as well accommodated here as he would be at any fancy hotel.

Once he was done cleaning up around the house, Kaito realized that it was a good time to start dinner. Normally, he was fine with noodles and ice cream, despite Mei-chan's insistence that such things weren't healthy. Tonight, he needed to make something special, though. For this, Kaito put on his sky blue, vanilla ice cream cone print apron and then pulled out his big cookbook, blowing dust off the cover.

"Let's see. What to make for Gakupo-san?" It was almost as though he was asking the book this as he flipped through. Coming upon the perfect recipe, his eyes widened and a big smile spread across his face. "Perfect!"

At about seven in the evening, his doorbell rang. Kaito was still hard at work in the kitchen, but he would be ready to serve soon, so Gakupo's timing was perfect.

"Come in, come in!" He sang happily as he opened the door for his friend, still wearing his apron.

The Gackpoid raised his manicured brow at this, but did not remark as he gracefully walked inside, carrying too small suitcases.

"Kaito-dono, thank you so much for agreeing to this," he smiled sweetly. "I would much rather stay with a friend than to spend so much time in an unfamiliar place like a hotel."

"It's no problem at all! I've been excited about it too," Kaito reached for Gakupo's bags to carry them upstairs. "Is this all that you have?"

"Of course not," Gakupo replied with a smug smile and then gestured with his head over his shoulder.

Curious, Kaito peeked out of his front door and nearly fell over in shock. Outside was a sea of luggage all stacked up on top of each other. Really, he should have expected this. A man that was as well groomed as Gakupo couldn't possibly travel light.

"Dinner is almost done, Gakupo. I'll bring your bags inside. You just make yourself at home."

"Thank you, Kaito-dono," Gakupo sang. At the moment, he also appeared to be sparkling, but that could have been his host's imagination.

It took that host some fifteen minutes to get everything inside and safely arranged in the guest room for Gakupo. During that time, the house guest sat himself down on a cushion in front of the kotatsu and began fanning himself, smiling contently. Even after so much work, Kaito didn't have a moment to sit down, instead needing to get back into the kitchen before anything burned. Luckily everything was just fine and ready to serve.

"I hope that you are hungry, Gakupo-san!" The bluenette was quite merry as he began to fill the table with all of the necessities for dinner and then adding the dishes with the actual food.

"I nibbled some on rice crackers before I arrived, but I could always eat more," Gakupo replied, still fanning. There was a smile on his face until the last dish caught his eyes. Immediately, he stopped fanning and then looked at Kaito in horror. "Kaito-dono, are you really so cruel? How could you?"

"What do you mean, Gakupo-san?" The happy smile on Kaito's face was immediately replaced with a sad expression. Was this already going horribly? What had he done? Obviously, it was something terrible, as his house guest wore the face of someone whose puppy had been kicked.

"Did you mean it as a joke to serve me something like this?"

Saddened blue eyes followed Gakupo's pointing fan to the main dish on the table—steamed Japanese eggplant with spicy green onion and ginger sauce. Of course! What a terrible oversight! This was why he was known sometimes to the others as Baka!Kaito.

"I'm so sorry, Gakupo-san! I knew that you loved eggplants, but I never thought you would be horrified to eat one. Please forgive me!" Hastily picking the bowl up, he took it away, calling over his shoulder. "I'll make something else."

"No, no," Gakupo shook his head. "You shouldn't go through any extra trouble to accommodate me. I forgive you for that mistake. Everything else is just fine."

Kaito quickly poured the entire dish down the sink and turned on the garbage disposal. Then he returned, taking his place across from his guest. There was still plenty of rice and miso soup. As long as Gakupo was content with this, Kaito would be as well.

"I am really sorry to have offended you like that, Gakupo-san."

The Gackpoid shook his head, closing his eyes, "I've already said that I forgive you, Kaito-dono. Please do not feel that you have to go through any extra trouble for me."

"I'll try," Kaito smiled.

His friend was such an eccentric man, but his heart was good. Even after this little mishap, Kaito was sure that having him for a houseguest was going to be a lot of fun.


End file.
